As wireless technology has advanced, a variety of wireless networks have been installed, such as cellular and other wireless networks. Some wireless networks are based upon the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of Wireless LAN (WLAN) industry specifications, for example. Other wireless technologies are being developed, such as IEEE 802.16 or WiMax industry specifications. IEEE 802.16 defines the Wireless MAN air interface specification for wireless metropolitan area networks. A number of working groups are working to improve on this technology.
One proposed amendment to the 802.16 specification has proposed the use of relay stations that may be used to expand coverage and enhance throughput of a wireless network. In such a network, mobile stations may communicate with a base station via a relay station.
In addition, a basic function that many wireless networks perform is mobility of a mobile station from a first base station or access point to a second base station. The mobility in active mode is typically called handover and the mobility in idle mode is typically called location update. For handover, in some networks, a base station may be configured to scan signals, such as signals relating to mobile stations, and other base stations such as neighboring base stations. In some cases, when certain signal conditions are met, a handover may be requested to handover the mobile station from the current base station to a target base station, e.g., based on a higher channel quality at the target base station. For location update, a base station broadcasts its location identifier. An mobile station may receive the location identifier. If it finds it different than its registered location identifier, it may begin a signaling procedure to register in the new location. However, as wireless networks become more complex, the handover process and/or the location update may become more challenging.